Copernical Team
Study shines new light on ancient microbial dark matter
Bacteria are literally everywhere - in oceans, in soils, in extreme environments like hot springs, and even alongside and inside other organisms including humans. They're nearly invisible, yet they play a big role in almost every facet of life on Earth.
Despite their abundance, surprisingly little is known about many microorganisms that have existed for billions of years.
This includ Terminator zones on distant planets could harbor life
In a new study, University of California, Irvine astronomers describe how extraterrestrial life has the potential to exist on distant exoplanets inside a special area called the "terminator zone," which is a ring on planets that have one side that always faces its star and one side that is always dark.
"These planets have a permanent day side and a permanent night side," said Ana Lobo, a p SpaceX sets a new doubleheader record launch for SES
Establishing a new record of only four hours between a launch of Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, earlier today and a pair of geostationary-bound satellites for SES from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS), Florida.
A Luxembourg-based telecommunications company, SES S.A., sent two C-band television broadcasting satellites atop a 229-foot-tall (70-met The best way to learn about Venus could be with a fleet of balloons
Interest in the exploration of Venus has kicked up a notch lately, especially after a contested recent discovery of phosphine, a potential biosignature, in the planet's atmosphere. Plenty of missions to Venus have been proposed, and NASA and ESA have recently funded several. However, they are mainly orbiters, trying to peer into the planet's interior from above. But they are challenged by having to see through dozens of kilometers of an atmosphere made up of sulfuric acid.
That same atmosphere is challenging for ground missions. While some of the recently funded missions include a component on the ground, they are missing an opportunity that isn't afforded on many other planets in the solar system—riding along in the atmosphere. Technologists have proposed everything from simple balloons to entire floating cities—we even heard of a plan to enclose the entirety of Venus in a shell and live on the surface of that shell.
Rolls-Royce wins UK funds for 'Moon' nuclear reactors
British aerospace giant Rolls-Royce said Friday it had secured UK funding to develop small nuclear reactors that could provide power on the Moon.
Rolls said the UK Space Agency had offered it £2.9 million ($3.5 million) to help research "how nuclear power could be used to support a future Moon base for astronauts".
"Scientists and engineers at Rolls-Royce are working on the micro-reactor program to develop technology that will provide power needed for humans to live and work on the Moon," the aerospace company added in a statement.
Rolls forecast its first car-sized reactor would be ready to be sent to the Moon by 2029.
Friday's news comes as US space agency NASA aims to return humans to the Moon in 2025.
It would be the first visit since the historic Apollo missions ended in 1972.
"Nuclear power has the potential to dramatically increase the duration of future lunar missions and their scientific value," Rolls said.
The group, best known for its engines powering Airbus and Boeing aircraft, will work alongside UK universities including Oxford on the space project.
NASA appoints Lunar science leads for Artemis 3 and 4
NASA has appointed two scientists to coordinate the lunar science teams supporting the first and second crewed lunar landing missions in more than 50 years. NASA's Artemis missions will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, using innovative technologies to explore the lunar South Pole region and establish a long-term presence at the Moon.
Noah Petro, of NASA's Goddard Space Systems Command demonstrates satellite anti-jam capability
Space Systems Command (SSC) successfully demonstrated its ground-based antijamming satellite communications (SATCOM) capability using an on-orbit operational satellite. The event demonstrated over-the-air Protected Tactical Waveform (PTW) connectivity between a Protected Tactical Enterprise Service (PTES) Joint Hub and a test terminal, and over-the-wire connectivity to a PTW-capable modem develo NASA's Magellan Data Reveals Volcanic Activity on Venus
Direct geological evidence of recent volcanic activity has been observed on the surface of Venus for the first time. Scientists made the discovery after poring over archival radar images of Venus taken more than 30 years ago, in the 1990s, by NASA's Magellan mission. The images revealed a volcanic vent changing shape and increasing significantly in size in less than a year.
Scientists stud New Horizons team adds AI to Kuiper Belt Object search
By early 1930, Lowell Observatory junior astronomer Clyde Tombaugh had spent months poring over hundreds of telescopic photo plates in the search for a single moving object - which would turn out to be Pluto, the ninth planet.
Nearly a century later, the team that famously explored the planet Tombaugh discovered is expanding its own search for new targets of discovery - and doing it with t Remains of a modern glacier found near Martian equator
In a groundbreaking announcement at the 54th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference held in The Woodlands, Texas, scientists revealed the discovery of a relict glacier near Mars' equator. Located in Eastern Noctis Labyrinthus at coordinates 7 degrees 33' S, 93 degrees 14' W, this finding is significant as it implies the presence of surface water ice on Mars in recent times, even near the equator